>> pagespec that uses it?
>>
>> Example: `define(~bugs, bugs/* and !*/Discussion) and define(~openbugs, ~bugs and !link(done)) and ~openbugs and !link(~openbugs)`
->>
+
+>>> That could work. parens are only ever nested 1 deep in that grammar so it is regular and the current parsing would be ok.
+
>> Note that I made the "~" explicit, not implicit, so it could be left out. In the case of ambiguity between
>> a definition and a page name, the definition would win.
->>
+
+>>> That was my initial thought too :), but when implementing it I decided that requiring the ~ made things easier. I'll probably require the ~ for the first pass at least.
+
>> So, equivilant example: `define(bugs, bugs/* and !*/Discussion) and define(openbugs, bugs and !link(done)) and openbugs and !link(openbugs)`
>>
>> Re recursion, it is avoided.. but building a pagespec that is O(N^X) where N is the
>> number of pages in the wiki is not avoided. Probably need to add DOS prevention.
>> --[[Joey]]
+>>> If you memoize the outcomes of the named pagespecs you can make in O(N.X), no?
+>>> -- [[Will]]
+
> One quick further thought. All the above discussion assumes that 'dependency' is the
> same as 'links to', which is not really true. For example, you'd like to be able to say
> "This bug does not depend upon [ [ link to other bug ] ]" and not have a dependency.
> I'm not sure why iterating over `%pagesources` wouldn't work here, it's the same method
> used by anything that needs to match a pagespec against all pages..? --[[Joey]]
+>> My uchecked hypothesis is that %pagesources is created after the refresh hook.
+>> I've also been concerned about how globally defined pagespec shortcuts would interact with
+>> the page dependancy system. Your idea of internally defined shortcuts should fix that. -- [[Will]]
+
Immediately below is a patch for IkiWiki.pm. Below that is a new plugin `definepagespec `
which behaves like `shortcut` for pagespecs.